I have a goal in my life and no one can stop me

Let's go to the word of the Lord. Nehemiah chapter 1. Word of Nehemiah, son of Jacaliah:

“It happened in the month of quisleu in the year 20, when I was in Susa, the capital of the Kingdom, that Janani, one of my brothers, came with some men from Judah and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, who had remained in the city. captivity, and by Jerusalem. And they told me, “The remnant of the captivity there in the province are in great evil and shame and the wall of Jerusalem is demolished and its gates burned with fire. When I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for some days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

And I said, “I beg you, O Jehovah, God of heaven, strong, great and fearsome, that you keep the covenant and mercy to those who love and keep his commandments. Oh, let your ear be attentive now and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now make before you day and night for the children of Israel, your servants. And I confess the sins of the children of Israel that we have committed against you, yes, I and my father's house have sinned. In extremes we have corrupted ourselves against you and we have not kept the commandments, statutes and precepts that you gave to Moses, your servant.

Remember now the word that you gave to Moses, your servant, saying, "if you sin, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and put them to work even if your dispersion were to the ends of heaven I will gather you from there and bring you to the place I have chosen to make my name dwell there. They, then, are your servants and your people whom you redeemed with your great power and with your mighty hand. I beg you, O Lord, now listen to the prayer of your servants who wish to reverence your name, now grant good success to your servant and give him thanks before that man because I served as the king's cupbearer."

Blessed be the word of the Lord. That word can be used today, we have preached that word many times to talk about leadership and about the concepts of leadership and how we establish strong leadership, intelligent leadership just like Nehemiah established.

We've used that word to talk about government, how we set up smart governments, how we set up strong governments. We have used that word to speak of a concept of leadership formed at a level that we know that God is instructing. But today I want to use this word to talk about a life with a goal, a life with perspective.

And if I were to give a theme to that message, I would say that the theme would be more or less, I have a goal in my life and no one can stop me. How many say amen? How many here have a goal in life? Hallelujah!

About a thousand years after the time of Moses when Nehemiah writes this letter, that is, about 400 or so before the birth of our Jesus Christ, the nation of Israel was going through great tribulation and great despair. And my brothers we see in the word of God various times in which the nation of Israel went through despair and tribulation. That is not the first time, that was not the second time that Israel went through a time of tribulation.

And once again Israel is tested, their nations had been destroyed, first beginning with the northern nation of Jerusalem and then the southern nation of Judah. The city of Jerusalem had been completely conquered by the king of Babylon. The Babylonians took over the city of Jerusalem. Solomon's temple had been completely destroyed at this time and there was chaos, there was despair, walls had been destroyed, doors burned, people without hope, that is, Israel was experiencing one of the greatest crises in its history.

When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem they did what many politicians do when they come to power, right? The first thing the Babylonians did was deport everyone, they deported almost all the people in the region and for almost 70 years Jerusalem seemed more like a ghost city, Jerusalem was doomed in history to be one of those forgotten cities, except for its past history, except for its mighty deeds, its mighty kings in history.

And when the Jews were deported to Babylon they began to build houses, to own the land. According to the instruction of Jeremiah, which says that they began to marry, to give their daughters in marriage, and they prospered in the place where they were. Many of them went on to worship the gods of their fathers, but from Babylon and without any desire to return to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Some of those faithful Jews were constituted as governments, we see Daniel as governor, right? We see Esther made queen of the fish. After 70 years they had the opportunity to return. However, of the two or three million, pay attention, of the two or three million that were dispersed from Israel, barely 50 thousand returned to the promised land. In other words, barely 2 percent of the entire population.

But what did they do after finishing the book of Ezra? In other words, in that space between the book of Ezra and the prophecies and everything Nehemiah did, after all that time, more or less 6 years after the first captives returned to the promised land, God always raises someone up. As it says in every story, then every story God raises up a redeemer. History shows in the Bible that God always raises up his prophet, his man, God always raises up the redeemer.

When the world is in despair God raises up a prophet. And it was exactly at this pivotal moment in history that God raised up Nehemiah. Nehemiah receives the news that his land was in despair, that the people were in despair. The burned gates, the demolished walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah did not hold back, says the word that Nehemiah began to pray, Nehemiah began to fast before the Lord. But Nehemiah had a goal in his heart, the word says that Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer and it is important to mention that the king's cupbearer was a man who cared, who tasted the wine before it was brought to the king, right? For safety, it may be that that wine was poisoned or something.

So what they did, Nehemiah drank the wine in front of the king and the king stared at Nehemiah. If my legs shake, I don't take it. But that day was an interesting day, Nehemiah tasted the wine, the king was looking at him, Nehemiah was normal, his legs did not shake, the king drinks the wine, and looks at Nehemiah and says, "Nehemiah, something is wrong with you, what do you have?" ? You're never sad, what's up? and Nehemiah told the king what was happening with his community, what was happening with his people and the Bible says that Nehemiah made a plea to the Lord, "I beg you, pay attention to the prayer of your servant, - verse 11, and the prayer of your servants who wish to reverence your name, now grant good success to your servants and give him grace before that man.”

And Nehemiah was thinking of talking to King Artaxerxes, - he was inaugurating that word for days to pronounce correctly, right? – I trained her, brothers, but you know how things are. On the walk we reach our objectives, our goals, our vision, the vision we have for our lives, for our families, first we need to know the goal of the vision we have.

Nehemiah knew that he could never reach this goal without prayer. The first thing Nehemiah did was to pray and fast. Let me tell you there is no victory without prayer. A church that does not pray is a church that is going to be defeated. Listen to me. Today we need a church that prays, that seeks the face of the Lord, we need believers who fast, spend time fasting and seeking the face of the Lord. But pastor, why do you say that? we pray here. I know we pray. This is a church that prays and worships the Lord and I love the way we do it.

But, brothers, it is little. We need to attend to the cries of prayer, the vigils, the moments of intercession that we have in this church, how God has done great things, how God has healed us, how God has blessed us, how miracles have happened in families of people who come and they put their causes before the Lord. We need to pray for this city, for this nation. We want a redeemed nation but we don't pay the price of prayer, we don't pray.

Nehemiah knew that he could never be successful without a prayer life. Nehemiah knew that it was extremely necessary to exalt the holiness of God. and see that verses 5, 6 and 7 Nehemiah exalts the holiness of God and Nehemiah declares all the attributes of divine character.

Let me tell you, God has a character and God's character has its attributes that are true and it is these attributes that you and I need for day to day. When you think that God is love, God is goodness, God is caring, God is faithfulness, when you think that God is everything he says in the word, you are saying facets of the attributes of his character.

And our prayer needs to contain the declaration of the attributes of divine character. When you state the character attributes of God you are saying, God you are throughout history and you always will be. Declare the attributes of God's character. Make a list of the attributes of God's character and let me tell you, my brothers, if you think, for example, of making a list from a to z, you will find all the attributes of divine character, you will find that God is love, that God is goodness, that God is caring, and he goes forth and you will find all the attributes of divine character, moral attributes and natural attributes of his character.

Nehemiah also recognized that turning away from the ways of the Lord was the reason for his destruction, the destruction of his people. Nehemiah tells how that people strayed from the ways of the Lord. We recognize that this nation was straying from the ways of the Lord, right? We acknowledge that our nations have strayed from the ways of the Lord. And that is why all the destruction, that is why so many problems, that is why so many unbalanced governments, that is why so many impeachments, that is why so many problems with corruption in the nations, because the nations are far from the ways of the Lord.

Verses 5, 6 and 7, Nehemiah declares and Nehemiah confesses the estrangement of the nation. Leviticus, chapter 26, verse 33 talks about the consequences of disobedience:

"... And I will scatter you among the nations and the sword will follow you, and your land will be devastated and your cities will be desolate..."

How much more correct is our life, my brothers, with God the more we will have our goals achieved. But even though we have all the goals, even though we have all the objectives in view, and even though we learn how to declare and how to confess the Lord's goodness and divine character, there are things that keep us from reaching our goals. And it is on these things that God invites us today to work in our life, to fix our life, to align our life with the Lord, to put our life in line with the divine purpose, to put our life in line with the will of God , [inaudible] of the world, [inaudible] the proposals of this world and we enter in line with the will of the Lord.

And there are some things in our life that prevent us from reaching these goals. And there are many things in the life of the church that prevent, brothers and sisters, our churches from being churches of healing for the nations. I have said that empty chairs symbolize empty hearts. We are empty. We are not filled with the goodness of God.

We choose Sunday as the day to come to church, right? and Sunday is nice, but what about Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday? On Saturday we start to warm up again. Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow. And here comes Monday.

The first thing that prevents us from reaching the goals that God wants us to reach is when we accept the devil's accusation on our lives. And let me tell you, there are many people who would come to church and still accept Satan's accusation on their lives. I came to tell you that you are free in the name of Jesus. You are free in the name of Jesus.

God has called us to assume positions of strength in his kingdom, to assume positions of victory in his kingdom, we are not called, my brothers, to assume positions of defeat, we are not called to assume positions of failure or failure in the kingdom. God called us to be victorious, and let me tell you that the devil is saying about it is a lie because the work of God on the cross of Calvary was complete. And the word of God does not lie. What God says you are in his kingdom, you are in the Kingdom of God. what God promised that you will achieve in his kingdom, you will achieve in the Kingdom of God. the rest is Satan's lie.

God has called us to reach into his kingdom, he has called us to live the life of victory and not a life of defeat. Christ makes us free from demonic ties in which many times we have fallen or we have lived a life in the past, occultism, witchcraft, abuse, drugs, accusations, demonic practices that we live in our past life and we convert, we bring this with us and we never get free because we never went through the process of a true conversion in Jesus Christ.

Because if you are truly converted to the Lord you are free from all those curses. Jeremiah 29.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all those in captivity whom He has carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses, plant gardens, eat their fruit, marry, beget sons and daughters, give wives to your men. sons, give husbands to your daughters so that they may have sons and daughters and multiply there and do not diminish yourselves. Seek peace in the city to which I had you transported and pray for it to Jehovah because in his peace you will have peace."

Another thing that prevents us from reaching the goal we have in God is when we don't know who we are in God. We are in the kingdom but we do not know that we belong to the kingdom. We are in the kingdom but we do not know how to live the benefits that God has for us in the Kingdom of God.

Let me tell you when we come to the Gospel, my brethren, we come to a kingdom full of love, life, and healing. And when we get involved with this kingdom, we get involved with the benefits that this kingdom itself has. In other words, there is healing in the Kingdom of God, so in the name of Jesus be healed. There is joy in the Kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus receive the joy of God. Remove the sadness from your life. There is healthy life inside in the Kingdom of God, that is why it has been healed in the name of Jesus.

Everything that God has in his kingdom is for his children to enjoy, it is for us to live a life of power, a life of joy and a life of success before the Lord. Beware of contamination proposals, with the dead things of this world. There are many proposals out there. There are many proposals. And let me tell you, what the devil proposes doesn't look so bad, does it? it doesn't look so ugly. It looks nice sometimes. It looks pretty, with flowers, the devil's proposals have a pretty face. Don't live this illusion. Beware of contamination. Do not get involved with what is dead in this world because the kingdom that you live in is a kingdom of life and a kingdom of victory.

When we hear the voice of the devil saying that our vision, that our life is not successful, that our life will not prosper, we allow the devil to take account of the purpose that God has established. And that happened with the life of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was building. The word says in chapter 4, Nehemiah, that a guy named Sanballat came to Nehemiah.

“Shanballat heard that we were building the wall without horror, and he became very angry and made fun of the Jews. And he spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria and said, “What are these weak Jews doing? Will they be allowed to offer their sacrifices here again? Will they be over in one day? Will the stones that were burned rise from the heaps of dust?” And Tobias the Ammonite stood by him, and he said, What they build of the stone wall, if a fox climbs up, it will tear it down. Hear, O our God, that we are the objects of their contempt, and turn their shame upon their heads, and deliver them as plunder in the land of their captivity."

The guy listens to the building of the wall in Jerusalem and starts making fun of Nehemiah and the Jews. The other says, this wall is so weak that if a fox comes it will knock it down, knock it down. That wall is useless, is it? that wall does not prosper. Let me tell you, there are enemies of prosperity that surround us every day. There will always be those who will come to you and tell you that you are not prosperous. There will always be those who will say that your plan, your purpose, your goal does not work. There will always be those who will try to tear down your dreams, destroy with their purposes. And let me tell you, those people are not sent from God.

I told my wife recently, I made a decision, I want to be away from negative people. I want to be away from negative people. If you want to come to be blessed, come closer because I have a blessing for your life, but to throw negativity at me, go there. no Sanballat in my life, no Tobias in my life. Say, no Sanballat in my life.

The word of God says that through Jesus Christ we are free, all negative and defeatist, attitudes such as, for example, I can't, I don't have, nobody loves me, nobody wants me, oh, nobody looks at me. I'm never going to get married, pastor. Let me tell you, more or less I think that 11 months ago I married a couple of 71 and 70. You like hope, right? TRUE? 71 and 70… there is hope. There is hope.

Singles say amen. Glory to God. Negative thoughts and there are some who say, no pastor, it's that people are bad. When you say, for example, people are bad, you are generalizing a life pattern that is not true. Because people aren't bad, right? People's attitudes are sometimes not good, but we cannot say that people are bad, that no one can be trusted. Those are pessimistic thoughts and they are thoughts that do not propose the idea of a man and a woman who are building and who have a goal and who have a purpose. If you are rebuilding, if you are building, your thoughts need to be rebuilt. Your life, your language needs reconstructed. Change your language. Change your way of speaking, your way of greeting, your way of looking at people. Change your life today.

Change your life. Change everything that is negative in your life. Look at the people with joy and prophesy over them blessing, joy, prosperity. Let's stop with the gossip. Let's stop with death in the house of God. This is a place of life and not death, and let me tell you, there are murderers in the house of God. The Bible says that he who hates his brother is a murderer. Oh oh.

There are murderers in the house of God. But let me tell you that God makes us free from the curse, from spiritual poverty and from ignorance. He did not make us to be spiritually ignorant. God made us to be men and women who look ahead, see a future, who see a goal and run towards it.

We proclaim that Christ is the truth, that by knowing him and receiving his power our chains are broken and we sing this, we sing that we are free in Christ. We dance this, but the reality many times we do not assume this attitude in our life. Because when we see the problems, we see the struggles, when we see the difficulties, when they see sickness at home, when we lack employment, when we lack money, when there is a lack of health in the family, we question the greatness of God and his power. .

Number 4. Beware of the devil's proposals, with the intention of taking your eyes off the one who is restoring your whole life and the project that is in your hands. In chapter 6 of Nehemiah something interesting happens, it says that the guy Sanballat was desperate because the wall was being built and Sanballat heard that the gates were being built. In verse 1 to 4 of chapter 6:

“…When Sanballat and Tobias and Gesem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall and that there was no gate left in it (although until that time I had not put the leaves on the doors), Sanballat and Gesem they sent to tell me: come and let us meet in one of the villages in the field of Ono. But they had thought of hurting me. And I sent them messengers saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot go; for the work would cease if I left it to come to you. And they sent me with the same issue up to 4 times, and I responded to them in the same way.”

I do a great work and I cannot go. When the devil invites you to proposals that destroy God's vision in your life, destroy the goal that God established for your life and for your heart, the answer is this, I don't have time, I do a great work and I can't go . When I invite you to carnal dances, oh, oh, say, I'm doing a great play and I can't go. When they invite you to the things that you know in your heart, to the places that you know that your God will not be there, say I am doing a great work and I cannot go.

In these times, people are needed, men and women, with convictions like Nehemiah's, with character like Nehemiah's, that you have an excellent answer, I am doing a great work. I'm busy. God in his kingdom has me busy with his work and I cannot attend to the proposals of this world.

Some practical advice that I think would help to achieve this goal. I was thinking last night as I was meditating on the book of Nehemiah, what practical advice would I give my church in life. First, don't stop the work, keep busy in the Lord. What you are doing keep doing it. If you have an evangelization project, keep evangelizing. If you are involved in prayer, keep praying. A sister came to me and said, Pastor, I want to help you take the vigils to another level. I said, Hallelujah! To another level.

Can you imagine if all of us here decided to take our prayer vigils to another level? I tell you this, brothers, because I come from a church that holds vigils. In my country we hold vigils and we start at 7 pm and finish when we finish. Oh really. I'm serious. And I remember that once they invited me to preach a vigil in my country and I went, I took two missionaries with me. The missionaries had just arrived from a missionary trip, they were tired, and they asked, Pastor, until what time? I tell them, no, it's just to preach this while. I got there at 7, there was a praise that I never wanted to stop. And when the praise ended, it was around 8 at night, the missionaries looked at me with the face that they wanted to sleep, right?

And the sister invited me, pastor, come. And I went, right? I had my sermon ready to preach at a vigil but it occurred to me to ask him something. I did not want to ask until the vigil because I only went to preach, but I asked a subjective question, I asked, just for my own control, what hours more or less do the other preachers usually return the floor? Pretty classic, right? and she looked at me and said, over there at 6 in the morning! Around 6 in the morning, 6, 6:30, pastor, is that okay? Yes. It was 8 o'clock. What to do? Pray. And we began to pray and let me tell you, the missionaries were down, asleep over there, they couldn't stand it, I forgave them because they had come from a missionary trip, but that fire from God and we were only about 800 more or less gathered there and that fire from God, this glorious presence until 6. At 6:30 I turned the word over to the sister, and the sister said, okay? Already.

Hopefully, brothers, God puts in us this thirst for prayer, this desire to pray. I know that sometimes we come to the vigil and look at the clock. Don't stop the work.

Second advice, do not stop to attend to the errands of your opponents. If you do, you will never reach your goal. Don't listen to them. Listen to the Lord. Listen to the right directions in your life.

Number Three. Even your friends can be dangerous to achieve the purpose that God has in your life, so be very careful. Oh come on, I want to be your friend. Listen to God and ask the Lord for discernment.

Number 4. Don't worry about what people are thinking of you. Sometimes we spend a lot of time worrying about what they think of me, right? what are they saying about me? When our primary concern should be that God is thinking of us. If you please your God, if you walk with God...

This morning I prayed to the Lord, do you know that prayer that you do and know that you are getting into trouble? Now [inaudible] that you do it and you know you're getting yourself in trouble. I said, Lord, I want to walk with you in such a way that it displeases everyone. I got in trouble. But I prayed, I already prayed. And I know that God will promote me, provide opportunities to please him, to be faithful only to him, even if other people don't like it. Don't worry.

Fifth tip. Beware of sin in your life because sin can be habitual. Many times we get used to sin and there are sins, I realize, that there are sins that are no longer felt as sin, they are already so used to it that we no longer feel as sin. In other words, what Paul says is that the mind is cauterized, there is no more sensitivity, the conscience no longer turns on the red light that tells us to be careful. There is something wrong.

Nehemiah 4, verse 22: "I also said then to the people: each one with his servant remain within Jerusalem, and serve as sentinel by night and by day in the work."

Nehemiah says that the sentinels were there, why? With what moment could the enemy arrive and infiltrate the middle of the town and destroy the proposal, destroy the objectives, the goal.

We read in First Peter, chapter 5, verse 8, the word saying, “Be sober and watch out for your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Let me tell you, the devil wants to devour us. That's why the Bible says, watch, beware. Not only with habitual sins, but with sins that are often not confessed. Oh oh. hidden sins. Sins that only we, in quotes, know. But let me give you some news, God knows everything. Another news, God sees everything. All. There is nothing, nothing, nothing that God does not see. He sees everything. Beware of those who look at the internet.

Sixth advice: believe that the Sanballat and Tobias of this life will be persecuting a man or a woman according to God's heart. And sometimes that happens in the churches, we are running against each other, we are looking more at each other's situation, sometimes it happens in the churches, not here, in this church that does not happen. Thank God. I don't know about yours, but not here. that does not happen here.

I have a friend who says, while the world dies in darkness, the church fights in the light. We fight against each other. We look more at what one is doing wrong, right? The life of others, ah, did you listen to so-and-so, ah, I want to tell him something to make him pray. Lie. Gossip. Down with the gossipers in the name of Jesus.

God does not like gossip. God is a God of truth. God does not like one to rise up against the other. God is a God who exalts the fallen, who lifts up the downcast, allow God to use your life as a life of blessing for others. Be this blessing, be that light.

And the last piece of advice, live a pure life and consecrate your life to the Lord. Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 23. Nehemiah says,

“And neither I nor my brothers, nor my young men, nor the people of the guard who followed me, we took off our clothes; each undressed only to bathe.”

Because he was always present, attentive to divine holiness. Be attentive in your life to purity and consecration before the Lord. Today God gives us the opportunity to live that holiness. Tomorrow at work, at the university, at school, the Lord will promote you or give you the opportunity to live this holiness, to seek peace.

We have to sanctify ourselves and bathe in the word of God, cleanse ourselves every day and go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness every day for our life.

First John, chapter 1, verse 8 says;

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. – Verse 9 – If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. – Verse 10 – If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.”

Chapter 2, verse 1, “My little children, these things I am writing to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just."

Don't you think it's incredible that a letter was written so that we don't sin? These things I write to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just.

Hallelujah! He is your lawyer today. he is your Father today. Is there sin? Yes, there is sin. But we have a lawyer, we have a God who forgives you, who lifts you up, and a God who is interested in your soul more than your friends, more than your relatives, more than all the people you know on the face of the earth. God is interested in your life and in your soul.

Perhaps there is a person who today, 2, 3 or more, who acknowledges that they have sinned against the Lord, acknowledges that they never had a true encounter with Jesus Christ, never had a saving encounter through Jesus Christ. And today you say, I understand that message, I want that true encounter with Jesus today.

There is someone here who says, it's me, I want to give my life to Jesus. Where are you now? In your place there, raise your hand for me to identify you if you want to give your life to the Lord. Say, yes, pastor, I want to, I recognize that I am a sinner, a sinner, as we all are, but I know that God is powerful and is more interested in my life than anyone on the face of the earth and wants to heal me, restore me and wants to make me achieve the goals of my life and no one, no one can stop you.